ISLAMABAD: After extending scope of work, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided to give a six-month extension, in principle, to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) for completing work on the ongoing Margalla Road Project.

The contract was going to expire on June 10 however, according to sources it has been extended by another six months. They said the project would have been completed within its deadline if the scope of work was not extended.

The contractor was initially supposed to construct two lanes on each side of the road but later, the CDA decided that instead of two, there should be three lanes on each side. With the revised scope, work on the project now will likely be completed in the next three months, however, a six-month extension would be given to the contractor so that all ancillary work can be completed as well, sources said.

CDA Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed along with other officers of the civic agency visited the under-construction Margalla Road and expressed satisfaction over the pace of work.

CDA opens bids of two shortlisted firms for Bhara Kahu Bypass project

According to the authority’s spokesperson Syed Asif Raza, Mr Ahmed was told that 70pc work on the road has been completed as out of the total 10 kilometres, 6km have been carpeted. The CDA chief also visited the Shah Allah Ditta area, where a century-old graveyard is located.

Various proposals were discussed regarding what to do with the graveyard however a formal decision will announced in the next few days. One of the suggestions was that the road should be tilted towards the southern side of the graveyard (towards D-12 and 13) in order to remove the bottleneck.

Sources said in order to do this, the CDA will first have to clear dozens of built-up property claims of people for relocation of their houses. Earlier, CDA was mulling over construction of a tunnel or flyover above the graveyard.

The portion of Margalla Road, under the said contract, starts from Grand Trunk Road and ends in D-12, from where after construction of an interchange and a small portion of 11th Avenue, it will be linked with Khayaban-i-Iqbal.

The 33km-long Margalla Road from G.T. Road to Bhara Kahu is part of Islamabad’s master plan.

The CDA decided to construct it in three phases.

According to CDA, two phases will be constructed this year and the third one will constructed in the future, when the need arises. Work on the first phase of the road (from G.T. Road to D-12) is in progress. While, in the second phase, an 8km-long Bhara Kahu bypass will be constructed from Murree Road near Quaid-i-Azam University to Satra Meel. There is no serious development in the second phase (Bhara Kahu bypass) as CDA is yet to approve its PC-I.

The second portion of the road will also be executed by FWO and CDA officials said that currently the PC-I is being given final touches.

Bhara Kahu bypass consultancy

In a related development, the CDA on Monday opened financial bids of two shortlisted consultant firms: Nespak (with depositing bid of Rs66 million) and Umar Munshi Associates (with Rs43 million) for Bhara Kahu Bypass Project. One of them will be awarded consultancy and it will act as assistant to employers representative (AER).

CDA itself is the employer and the firm will act keep an eye on construction, which will be started after approval of PC-I from CDA’s Development Workig Party (DWP) meeting. This project will be executed on EPC mode by FWO and CDA’s hired consultant firm will supervise construction work.

Published in Dawn,June 7th, 2022